The present invention relates to a staple holder. In particular the present invention is directed to a hand-held staple holder for holding staples to be driven into a workpiece such as a utility pole.
In the outside aerial plant of a cable TV system, for example, amplifiers and other electronic equipment must be spliced with the cable. These devices are protected from lightning via No. 6 copper ground wires which are stapled to utility poles. At the base of each pole, a ground wire is attached to a ground rod which is driven into the earth beside the pole.
After the ground wire is attached to the respective electronic equipment, a lineman begins the process of stapling the ground wire from the top to bottom of the pole. The supply of staples is typically carried in a canvas pouch attached to the lineman's belt. Linemen typically wear gloves because utility poles have sharp, jagged edges and lead to splinters, cuts and injuries to ungloved hands. The heavy protective gloves make it difficult to reach into the staple pouch to locate individual staples. Removing the glove to find a staple can result in the point of a staple becoming lodged under a fingernail. Glove replacement and removal is also time-consuming.
Once the small staple is located, the lineman positions it over the ground wire and against the pole so as to hammer it into the pole. A gloved hand holding the staple provides minimal free space for the hammer to strike and a workman may frequently hit his hand with the hammer. Moreover, a hand-held staple will frequently be mis-hit, resulting in flying shrapnel. Further, the traditional hand-held procedure for installing staples frequently results in bent staples which cannot be corrected and must be withdrawn from the pole and thrown away. In order to avoid injury, the workmen will typically hold the staple with a pair of pliers which is time consuming.
There have been numerous devices created to drive staples into a workpiece. U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,127,665, and 3,294,303 disclose various staple attachment implements. None of these approaches is suitable for handling large staples such as required, for example, by cable-TV and utility companies.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,065 discloses an apparatus for holding and attaching large staples to a workpiece such as a utility pole. Unfortunately, the staple holding apparatus disclosed therein is relatively complex and heavy. Further, the staple holder disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,378,065 can only hold ten staples having a single size and the staples must frequently be reloaded.
It would be desirable to provide a hand-held staple mechanism which can be utilized to hold and align staples having varying dimensions for application in power lines and the like.
It would further be desirable to provide a hand-held staple mechanism which is light in weight and which can be easily held and maneuvered by a workman.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a staple holder which is light, inexpensive and easy to position, and which facilitates the safe application of large staples of varying dimensions to a workpiece such as a utility pole.
The present invention is specifically directed to a portable hand-operated staple holder, such as used by electric power linemen for supplying staples to a work location where they may be driven into a pole or post.